Cyclists are liberals?! (Retry)

[VeloVT]

I understand completely your position. In the general election your affiliation is not recorded. I find it very offensive that anyone other than the political party should be able to find my political affiliation. It should not be a public record, available to anyone who wants to inspect the voter registration records. To me, that is an invasion of the privacy of the voting booth.

I guess I should clarify what I said earlier. How this works varies from state to state. In Vermont, you are not asked to declare an affiliation when you register to vote, but you typically are asked to choose a ballot in primary elections (although maybe that is changing, if my experience last week is becoming typical). As noted, your ballot choice is not recorded, but many people still object to having to say it out loud, potentially in front of their neighbors (though I don't object to it greatly myself).

I guess I might object to having to declare my affiliation at registration, if for no other reason than it makes it difficult to make candidate-by-candidate choices (which I don't really do, but I believe in principle that one should be able to do, as long as you vote in only one primary of course).

I think we would be well served to standardize voting procedures and voter registration across the country, taking such concerns into account as well as all of the other important voting issues.

That said, voting is really important and voting in the primary is as important as voting in the general -- the outputs can only be as good as the inputs.

[salsabike]

I don't like it either but am not going to deprive myself of any opportunity to vote because of it. I still think voting is most important.

[shootingstar]

I think we would be well served to standardize voting procedures and voter registration across the country, taking such concerns into account as well as all of the other important voting issues.

That said, voting is really important and voting in the primary is as important as voting in the general -- the outputs can only be as good as the inputs.

In Canada it's just 1 voting standard across all the provinces and territories for federal elections. And no one is required to declare their party affiliation in advance..before going to the polls to vote.

For the past few decades we've had 3 major federal political parties to choose from. Occasionally there has been a 4th...though I must admit I haven't paid attention to the 4th.

[kelownagirl]

In Canada (Federally) we have Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats, the Green Party, and few others (different in Quebec tho). And Provincially, we have Liberals who aren't liberal at all but are very conservative and New Dems who are more or less Liberal. Weird.

Although on this poll I said I am liberal, you couldn't pay me to vote Liberal Provincially, although I do vote Liberal strategically in Federal elections because my party will never get in there so it's simply a matter of trying to keep the Conservatives out.

As one friend pointed out to me, it depends on the issue. I am a radical liberal on all social issues, that's for sure. My leaning on other issues vary.

[shootingstar]

In Canada (Federally) we have Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats, the Green Party, and few others (different in Quebec tho). And Provincially, we have Liberals who aren't liberal at all but are very conservative and New Dems who are more or less Liberal. Weird.

Yes, agree that at the provincial level in B.C., our Liberals who are in power right now,...are quite conservative.....

The better thing about Canadian politics federally and provincially, is that it is quite rare in the past few decades, that a politician would regularily invoke religious themes and references to "God" into their speeches, campaigns. Thank goodness...don't need to mix church and state, or clutter/confuse the public's mind even more.


As for why cyclists are perceived as liberals...maybe:
1) a bike looks and is a cheaper form of transportation. It's not a status symbol like the car. The car truly is a still a powerful status symbol in terms of a person's statement about their "perceived" income.

So maybe the subservsive logic in the minds of non-cyclists is the cyclist is "poorer" (though statistics have shown that this is clearly not always true) and hence, cyclists are perceived as a group which they feel govn't should subsidize/assist in range of programs and services.

2) Public advocacy efforts of some cycling advocates just may put them out of mainstream behaviour and thinking for the vast majority who don't cycle.

[andtckrtoo]

I'd like to see a "moderate" option in the poll, as I think most of us consider ourselves moderate while leaning in one direction or another. I like some of the traditional things each party stands for, but I think neither one is standing up to those traditions lately.

As for voting... I vote, whenever I'm given the option to vote (I even voted on this poll. ). I feel it's a civic duty and I do believe my vote counts. I also believe that I do not have the right to complain about the government if I do not vote.

[tulip]

I voted. I don't put bumper stickers on my car lest people I don't know rush to some sort of judgment about me without even knowing me. Not just political bumper stickers, but ANY bumper stickers (even college ones).

[Crankin]

I guess I'm in the minority here, since I'm the only one who said she didn't care who knows what my party affiliation is. It's part of who I am and I tend to be pretty out there with all such things.
But, back to the original question. Why are cyclists perceived as liberals?
This reminds me of something that happened in 1990, right after we moved back here. The schools were in bad shape, we lived in a small town on the NH border that had a reputation for being more blue collar than white. Many kids in town went to the Catholic school, and the public schools were notoriously underfunded. Here come my 2 little Jewish boys from Arizona... we got highly involved in an override vote for the schools and I wrote a letter to the regional newspaper saying something like "I would work 3 jobs to pay the extra tax money, so my kids could get a good education." Well, the next week I came home from work with my kids and put on the answering machine (back when you heard the message on a tape) and some woman was saying, "I have lived on your street for 30 years and we don't need you RICH LIBERAL snobs, so why don't you get the hell out of town?"
That was really nice for my 5 and 8 year old to hear.
My older son still has the tape and we play it every so often to laugh.

[Skierchickie]

Liza: You make very good points.
Here is my reasoning. I have voted in primary elections before, but I generally want to vote for the person from one party for one office, and somebody from another party for another. In Michigan you are required to register as one or the other (at least in the presidential primary), and the lists are sent to the national party. It isn't just a verbal selection. That is what I object to. I consider myself an independent.

Also, after thinking about it quite a bit this year, I realize that the primaries are for the sake of each party being able to choose its best candidate. If I don't consider myself as one or the other, and want to be free to vote for the person I see as the best one for the job, then maybe I have no business mucking up the waters for those that are actual party backers. Does this make any sense?

Anyway, I see it as a very imperfect system. Not that there is a perfect one. I really get sick of the "my party is right and the other party is wrong, no matter what" attitude that the government seems to have. The finger pointing often gets in the way of doing the right thing.

[tulip]

I don't mind talking about my political leanings, but I don't wear it on my sleeve or on my car. In my profession, I have to work with organizations and government agencies from across the political spectrum. I seek out commonalities. We are all working towards the same goal, and sometimes a bumper sticker will get in the way if someone comes to the table with a preconceived notion of who they are dealing with.

But y'all aren't my profession, so I'm happy to say that I'm very much on the liberal (in the U.S. political system sense) side of things, mostly.